A Streak of Corruption Runs Through the Canadian Government
Canadian politicians find themselves at a crossroads, torn between fulfilling their duty as public servants and pursuing personal wealth. The troubling reality is that numerous Members of Parliament (MPs) have engaged in stock trading, often exploiting various loopholes to do so. Canadian citizens are now posed with a pressing concern: can we trust the priorities and interests of our elected officials? Armed with information that can shape the future of business and industry, politicians possess the potential to engage in insider trading with virtually no prospect of repercussion. The exploitation of confidential information for personal profit ought to induce worry, not merely due to various politicians’ abuses of power but the prospect that investments will introduce conflicts of interests for politicians determining the outcomes of decisive legislature.
Visual Credit: Tom Carnegie
The imminent threat of climate change signifies that governments worldwide will embark upon an era of legislature that will revolutionize aspects of society and industry, the kind of decisive legislature that exemplifies the validity of concerns regarding corrupted priorities in government. Without trust in our politicians’ priorities, Canadians are forced to question the government’s ability to approach climate regulations with a clear and unbiased agenda. Unearthing conflicts of interest in the Canadian government is not a difficult task; currently, four MPs sitting on the 12-member natural resources committee have listed oil and gas stocks in their ethics disclosures. In the face of current environmental challenges, even a single member with a conflict of interest is unequivocally unacceptable. The natural resource committee's apparent bias towards gas and fossil fuel companies is evident, with Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson and his staff have praising Enbridge and Shell in recent months after his spouse invested in the two large fossil fuel companies. Regardless of whether these investments influence decisions, the mere possibility is disconcerting. Tough policies on emissions in Canada are inevitable, policies that will potentially harm gas and fossil fuel companies. We cannot tolerate leaders who may hesitate to inflict financial consequences on said companies financially out of fear they will hurt their own pockets at the same time.
The stock market activities of Canadian politicians is nothing short of insider trading. With exclusive information regarding industry futures, there are legitimate concerns that MPs might exploit this knowledge in the stock market. Their advantage in the stock market is exacerbated by one of the many failures included in the Conflict of Interest Code, which grants MPs a 60-day window to disclose new investments made in the stock market. This extensive window prevents the public from tracking trades by MPs in real-time, ensuring that the information exploited by MPs in their trades remains exclusive. Unlike typical insider trading, these trades have the potential to alter legislation if—and when—our officials prioritize their profits over their duty.
Higher government officials are faced with the first real preventative measures to hinder unethical trading. Unfortunately, these restrictions are rendered ineffective by the abundance of loopholes within said measures. Cabinet members and other high-level politicians are forced to divest all assets or opt for a blind trust. This, in theory, sounds like a great way to evade insider trading and retain an official's right to trade, but in practice has largely failed. The scandal involving Trudeau’s former Finance Minister, Bill Morneau, exposed one of the major flaws of blind trusts: lack of enforcement. Morneau, owning about two million shares in his former pension services company, made controversial decisions regarding pensions in Canada. Even though he initially intended to put his assets in a blind trust, he changed his mind after consultations with the ethics watchdog. Morneau later resigned due to a separate conflict of interest. Had Morneau invested in a blind trust, we still ought to question just how “blind” the trusts truly are. The subsection of the Conflict of Interest Code granting House members the right to choose the trustee and give initial instructions turns a potential solution into a farce. Although Cabinet members are kept at arm’s length from their trusts, they likely have insight into their contents, or at the very least, the industries on which they are based on.
The Canadian government’s streak of corruption remains unaddressed. Canadian citizens cannot rely on Parliament to make impartial decisions. The threat of climate change is an example of the absolute imperative to rid our government of its ties to oil and gas corporations. The existing preventative measure, the Conflict of Interest Code and use of blind trusts, are grossly ineffective, perpetuating chaos. This isn’t an isolated minor issue; this is an unethical catastrophe embedded within our government, with potential repercussions that could impact generations to come.
Max is a second-year Politics student and an Editorial Board member at Political Digest.